Knitted fabbic and process of making same



Nov. 2, 1948. A. J. COBERT KNITTED FABRIC AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAMEFiled 001,- 22, 1945 m /ys/v ron ARTHUR C0857? Patented Nov. 2, 1948KNITTED FABRIC AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME Arthur J. Cobert, Greensboro,

Corporation,

Burlington Mills County, Del.

N. 0., assignor to- New Castle Application October 22, 1945, Serial No.623,647

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a non-run elastic fabric and method of makingthe same, and particularly to a knitted fabric of the type made on flatknitting machines wherein certain of the stitches at determined pointsof location in the knitted fabric are made in the form of lockedstitches or knots to render the fabric run-resisting or run-proof.

Heretofore fabrics of the locked-stitch type, made either on circular orflat knitting machines, have been open to the objection that theirconstruction and mode of manufacture reduces the latitudinalstretchability and recoverability of the fabric due to the type oflock-stitch formation used in the fabric. In all prior knitted fabricsof non-run character of which I am aware, it has been the practice toproduce the locked stitches by an overlapping of the loops andstretching of the wales where the locked stitches occur, causing atension or strain in the area of the locked stitches and the formationof a meshy or opentype of fabric, resulting in a reduction in strengthand durability of the fabric and a decrease in the elasticity of thefabric below a desirable minimum.

In one well known prior type of fabric having these objections thelocked stitch is formed by stretching or spreading the bight portion ofa plain loop upon an adjacent needle, which needle also contains a plainloop, and casting these loops in the succeeding course so that the plainloop and partial loop are tied together. As in this construction thespread loop is hung over two wales without releasing another loop, anundesirable tensioning of the fabric in this area is produced and theelasticity of the fabric impaired. In another well known type of fabricof this character some of the loops, particularly the bight portionsthereof, are displaced to adjacent loops of adjacent courses, renderingthe stitches in that portion of the fabric interlocking, but the loopsare so stretched or elongated as to cause an appreciable loss ofelasticity in the fabric. The greater the number of locked stitches soformed in a given area in the fabric the greater the loss of elasticity.

One object of my invention is to provide a nonrun knitted fabric wherebythese objections to prior fabrics are avoided and a fabric producedhaving perfect locked stitches which do not impair the elasticity, i.e., stretchability and recoverability, of the fabric. v

Another object of the invention is to provide a construction and methodof manufacture whereby a closely knit, strong and durable and highlyelastic knitted fabric may be produced.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a fabric having anovel form of locked stitch whereby security in the tying action isobtained with freedom of motion of the locked portions to allow amaximum degree of elasticity of the fabric.

The accompanying drawing shows a portion of a non-run knit fabricembodying a locked stitch made in accordance with my invention, theloops of the locked stitch being shadedin contrast with the regularloops. v

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, A designates a portionof a knitted fabric, in.

which certain loops are interlocked in accordance with my invention, a,b and 0 representingthree rows or courses of knittedloops. Of the'loopsin these rows loops I, 2, 3, 4, I, 8 and 9' are plain loops of a typewell known in the art, but loops 5, 5' and 6 are modified loops of anovel form and arrangement and co-act to produce a locked or tied stitch.in this areaof the fabric.

In the operation of knitting the fabric, loops 4, 5 and 6 are knit inthe conventional manner, but before they are cast from the needles apart of a course loop, such as a leg of loop 5, as shown, which is drawnout to form loop 5, is passed through loop 6, loop 6 is released fromits needle and loop 5' impaled on this needle for engagement with loop3, so that a loop 6 is also formed for engagement with the sinker in thewale between loops 8 and 9 of row 0. The loop 5 thus formed has its legscrossed at the point 5 to provide a lock loop or noose through which theadjacent dis- .placed leg of the loop 5 passes. The process of releasingloop 6 from its needle permits of the formation of loop 5' without anystretching or straining of the thread, because the added length ofthread that is added to accomplish this comes partly from loop 5 andpartly from loop 6, which latter on its release from its needle becomesvery small and feeds a portion of its former length to loop 5'.

It will be seen that the process of forming loop 5' and drawing itthrough loop 6, releasing loop 6 from its needle and then impaling loop5' on this needle produces a novel form and arrangement of interlockingor locked stitch in this area of the fabric. If, for example, a breakshould occur in the fabric which would release loop 2, the unrovingaction would be stopped at loop 5 because a part of it, namely loop 5,is tied in with loops 5 and 6. It will be noted that in the knittingoperation in which this locked stitch is formed there is at no time amultiplicity of stitches upon any one needle, so that all the loops ofthe fabric will be allowed to relax without any undue stretching orstraining in the interlocked area. By 10- cating the locked stitches atproper points in the fabric stoppage of the unroving of the fabric, incase of breakage, beyond an allowable minimum will be ensured.

My improved construction of fabric avoids the production of lockedstitches by the process of overlapping or stretching the loops, whichcauses 3 a tension or strain in each locked area, reducing the stretchand .recoverability, and provides a fabric which retains practically allthe elastic y of a plain knit fabric while being of greater strength andbetter appearance. It will be evident that this improved fabric avoidsthe production of undue tension in the locked areas because of thecharacter of the interlocking principle involved. While inthe processotrnaking the fabric a loop is transferred from one needle to thejnext,as in most non-run fabrics, an essential difierence is that the loopwhich was originally upon the sec. ond needle is permitted to slipthrough the transferred loop. This slipping through of the loop relaxesthe thread taken from the first needle,

thereby: preserving the originalelasticity of the fabric and at the sametime forming a perfect lock-stitch. The stitch thus :formedpresentsitself in the form of a tiny knot rather than a large openin in thefabric, so that both the stren th and appearance of the fabric areimproved, which are features of importance, particularly in themanufacture of gossamer or sheer knit fabrics.

It will be understood that while I have disclosed for exemplificationone form of embodiment of my invention, and one Way of making the same,

changes. in the size, shape'and arrangement of theparts and the knittingaction, such as fall within the scope of the appended claims, may bemade without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of theadvantages of the invention. Having thus described my invention, Iclaim: 1. The method of producing a lock-loop in a knitted fabric formedof plain loops and lockloops, which consists in drawing a partial plainloop of a course through an adjacent plain loop in the same course,releasing the adjacent plain loop from its needle, and impaling thepartial plain loop upon this needle.

2.. A knitted fabric comprising rows of needle loops and including aloop drawn from a leg of a loop'otta row and passing through anotherloop inithe same row adjacent the leg, said drawn loop having its legscrossed and having a loop in the, next row and in the same Wale as thethird-named loop passing therethrough.

' ARTHUR J. COBERT.

The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Germany Jan. 26, 1939France June 27, 1938 Number Number

